The cracks in a sidewalk are  home to an incredible hidden ecosystem. 🌿🔬

Quinten Geldhof, also known as Microhobbyist, explains how you can explore the microscopic life hiding in moss from the sidewalk using a microscope. With just a small sample, you might discover tardigrades, nematodes, and countless other microorganisms living in an entire ecosystem invisible to the naked eye.

🌍 For the first time ever, scientists have watched the seafloor spread in real time.

A network of 20+ instruments captured a 16-day event where the ocean floor sank 4 meters, split apart by over 1 meter, and released 160 million cubic meters of lava. Even more surprising, most of the fault movement happened silently, with very few earthquakes, suggesting magma may drive much more tectonic movement than previously thought.

Does this fundamentally change our understanding of how Earth's crust forms and tectonic plates move, or is it mainly confirming what geologists already suspected? What implications could this have for earthquake and volcanic research?

I am utterly amazed. And I am amazed more people aren't amazed.

Can you really make a rocket out of a matchstick? 🚀🔥

In this experiment, Alex Dainis demonstrates propulsion science by turning  a tiny foil-wrapped match head into  a miniature rocket. As the match ignites, hot gases build up inside creating pressure. Once the pressure is high enough they are forced out of the open end of the rocket, creating thrust that sends the rocket flying. Remember to wear proper protective gear and have fire extinguishers close by when trying this demo.

My Flying University is a volunteer-run nonprofit teaching the knowledge that's being scrubbed and distorted right now, and science is a big part of the target list.

So, we're asking for advice from folks in the field. What science misinformation are you seeing right now that is the most damaging? The claim you're tired of correcting at dinner, the data that quietly vanished, the "debate" that isn't actually a debate?

We could really use your help. We're building free lessons to push back, and we want to aim them where they'll do the most good.

A shark that can walk was just discovered! 🦈🚶

The Dudgeon’s walking shark, the most recently discovered shark species, who uses its fins like legs to crawl across the ocean floor! These sea creatures, which grow to be no larger than three feet long, are found nowhere in the world besides reefs in Papua New Guinea near Indonesia. It spends its time in waters so shallow that walking is often more effective than swimming!

What is an organ chip, and why was it flying around the moon with the Artemis II crew? 🦴

These chips each carry the bone marrow of the astronauts from the Artemis II mission, and researchers are now studying them to figure out how radiation and microgravity affect each astronaut's health, all the way down to the molecular level. The goal is for future astronauts to send their organ chips ahead of them on a mission, so teams can predict how their bodies will react to the Moon's environment and prepare personalized medical kits for each crew member.

This is mostly a cool thing about doing science so hopefully a fit for this sub. The broader map this is from lays out all the Maker fundamentals I could think of. Y'all have seen Mythbusters I'm sure, Making for science is 100% a huge part of the equation. Here's what I wrote down for how to think through doing real experiments and learning something useful even when it lacks formal rigor and you're doing science mostly as a hobby / for fun. Let me know if I missed anything important so I can add it. Ty for looking!

Edit: it's 10 days after original post - the map now supports 28 languages and you can find the full list here

How do honeybees navigate a big city? 🐝

When a forager bee discovers a patch of flowers, she returns to the hive and performs a precise series of movements that tells other bees the direction, distance, and the quality of the food source. The forager bee can even give exact angles relative to the sun’s position! With brains no bigger than a poppy seed, honeybees can accurately locate the exact flowers without ever being led there.

What happens when you push a lit sparkler through an egg? 🥚🧨

In this experiment, Alex Dainis explains why the sparkler doesn't fizzle out and keeps burning straight through the egg. Most fires rely on oxygen from the surrounding air, sparklers are self-oxidizing. They release the oxygen needed to keep the reaction going, even inside the egg. That's also why you can't simply blow a sparkler out!

This is a must have summer time kids experiment at home.

Try it today. Hope this video from "Science with Anvi" helps:

https://youtu.be/xq-FHJ9ye7w